Apparatus for tying-off sausage tubes or the like



w. HAUSER 3,319,665

APPARATUS FOR TYINGOFF SAUSAGE TUBES OR THE LIKE May 16, 1967 Filed March 12, 1965 INVENTOR:

NIH/ilk! fill/5A? United States Patent V I 7 3,319,665 APPARATUS FOR TYING-OFF SAUSAGE TUBES OR THE LIKE Wilhelm Hauser, Munich-Grafelfing', Germany, assignor to Hamac-Hansella Aktiengesellschaft, Viersen, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Mar. 12, 1965 Ser. No. 439,494 1 Claim. (Cl. 140-93) This invention relates to apparatus for tying-off sausage-like structures. Such apparatus is used, for example, in sausage factories to separate a tube filled with sausage material into individually tied-off sausages.

In known apparatus of this kind a pair of opposed tyingoff elements are movable toward each other and function to squeeze the filled tube so that the casing becomes pinched into a compacted string-like condition. One of the elements is provided with a guide channel in which there is a pusher adapted to advance a U-shaped bendable wire staple through the channel to the pinched region; the other element embodies an opposed pusher having two juxtaposed anvil surfaces for the ends of the staple, so that when the pushers come together the staple is looped around the pinched tube region with the staple ends extending past each other in opposite directions.

This known type of device has the disadvantage that relatively complicated means must be provided Within the guide channel to direct the staple ends properly to the anvil surfaces.

It is an object of this invention to provide a greatly simplified and highly reliable means for bending a wire staple into a very tight loop around a pinched region of a sausage tube or the like without danger of puncture or other damage to the tube by the projecting ends of the staple.

The objective of the invention is achieved by inclining the guide channel for the staple pusher in a special way with respect to the plane of the opposed pusher so that when the pushers come together one of the staple ends encounters one anvil surface while the other staple end encounters the other anvil surface.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a face view of the essential parts of the apparatus;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the front end of the opposed pusher; and

FIGURE 3 is a cross-section of FIGURE 1, showing location and orientation of the channel.

The apparatus comprises opposed relatively movable tying-off elements but only one of them is shown at 1 in FIGURE 1. These elements are mounted at opposite sides of a sausage tube or the like, and when they move toward each other their V-shaped notches cooperate to 3,319,665 Patented May 16, 1967 squeeze the tube to a compacted condition While the material within the tube is wedged aside.

Secured to the element 1 is a part 2 provided with a guide channel 5 within which a pusher 3 is slidably mounted. This pusher serves to advance a U-shaped bendable wire staple, feet first, through the channel 5. (Such a staple, in its original shape, is shown at 4 in dot-dash lines.) It is moved by the pusher 3 to a position surrounding the pinched region of the tube. Secured to the other tying-off element (similar to element 1 but not shown) is an opposed pusher 9 provided on its front face with two anvil surfaces 10 and 11. As shown in FIGURE 2, these surfaces lie adjacent to each other but are contoured in opposed directions.

As shown in FIGURE 3, the guide channel 5 is slightly inclined with respect to the plane of the opposed pusher 9, the inclination being such that when the staple 4 is advanced its end 4' will encounter one of the anvil surfaces 10, .11, while the other end 4" will encounter the other anvil surface. As a result, after the pushers have completed their movements toward each other the staple becomes bent into the looped condition shown at 12, tightly encircling the pinched region of the tube. The ends 4' and 4" of the staple extend harmlessly in lateral directions between the adjacent tied-off sausages without injury to the tubular casing.

What is claimed is:

In an apparatus for tying-off a sausage tube or the like, a pair of opposed relatively movable elements on opposite sides of the tube adapted to squeeze a region of the tube into a compacted pinched condition, one of said elements being provided with a guide channel, a pusher movably mounted in said channel and adapted to advance a U-shaped bendable wire staple through said channel to said pinched region, and an opposed pusher carried by the other of said elements and provided on its front face with a pair of anvil surfaces, said anvil surfaces being arranged in adjacent parallel planes and being stationary with respect to each other, said channel being so inclined to the plane of said opposed pusher that when the pushers move together one of the staple ends will encounter one of said anvil surfaces while the other staple end will encounter the other anvil surface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 317,480 5/1885 Young.

438,712 10/1890 Painter 14393 X 470,545 3/ 189-2 Cochran. 1,908,981 5/1933 Hicks. 2,138,495 11/ 1938 Lewis 93 X 2,43 8,023 3/ 1948 Sirp. 2,478,435 8/1949 Swenson et a1 140-93 WILLIAM J. STEPHENSON, Primary Examiner, 

